Weight Loss Trick: Why Thinking About the Food You Really Want to Eat Can Help You Eat Less

What are you craving right now? Bacon? Pizza? A big gooey cinnamon roll? Whatever the food, if you really want it and are worried that it's going to derail your weight loss goals, consider this surprising and apparently effective tip from researchers...

This month, when many of us are faced with a zillion food temptations (don't ask me about the Christmas cookies I downed on Saturday!), and that's OK--a splurge is cool now and then. In my opinion, it's what makes life enjoyable! But, if giving into repeated splurges is having an impact on your waistline, consider this unusual tip from researchers: Whatever you're craving, just think about it.

That's right, if it's M&Ms you crave, ponder how delicious they are, and think about the chocolately taste in your mouth. Here's why it helps you eat less, say researchers at Carnegie Mellon University: Thinking about eating a "forbidden" food several minutes before you actually eat it can help you eat less of it.

In their study, they found that whatever the craving--cheese or M&Ms--study participants who pondered eating the food and the experience it would give them prior to actually eating it, consumed less than those who immediately sat down to eat.

The researchers think it might have something to do with satisfaction. For instance, the 10th bite of pumpkin pie isn't as wondrous as the first, right? So, in a sense, the study participants who had already thought about eating the splurgey food had already enjoyed some of the "pleasure" of that food before digging in--making them less apt to eat the whole bowl of M&Ms to get the same pleasure response.